World News Quick Take

Agencies

Mon, Oct 14, 2013 - Page 7

RUSSIA

Clashes at gay rights rally

A gay rights rally in St Petersburg has ended in scuffles after several dozen protesters were confronted by about 200 conservative and religious activists. The police standing nearby waited until clashes broke out between the two groups before intervening. According to news agencies, the police detained 67 people from both sides. The scuffles started after anti-gay protesters tore a rainbow flag out of a woman’s hands. The St Petersburg city government had sanctioned the rally despite the government’s June passage of a contentious law outlawing gay “propaganda.” Russian gays have faced increasing pressure and threats of violence, protesters said. St Petersburg police could not immediately be reached for comment.

FRANCE

Belgium wins wine tasting

Belgium on Saturday won the first world blind wine-tasting competition for teams, with Denmark and England finishing second and third, organizers said. Philippe Ketelslegers, Filip Mesdom, Eric Derenne and Serge Condens took top honors at the competition held in the southwestern town of Leognan, near the nation’s winegrowing capital of Bordeaux. A total of 16 teams from around the world, including South Africa, China, Russia, Argentina and Quebec, took part. The competition aimed to “bring together... all these amateurs, tasters from the world over, who can sometimes feel isolated in their home countries,” said Philippe de Cantenac, a journalist for the French wine monthly that organized the event. The teams, blind-tasting 12 fine wines from around the world, had to identify their countries of origin, the grape varieties used in them, their appellations and their vintages. A second edition of the competition will be held next year in another city, Cantenac said. The magazine La Revue du Vin de France has already hosted European championships in the same town since 2008.

ISRAEL

Gaza tunnels uncovered

The military said it has discovered an underground tunnel dug from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into Israel. The military says it believes the Islamist group, which governs the Palestinian territory, dug the tunnel to carry out an attack or to kidnap Israelis. The army yesterday said it discovered the tunnel a week ago, after finding an opening near a kibbutz along the border with Gaza. The army statement added that the tunnel is 2.5km long and appears to have been recently dug and in use until its discovery. Hamas has dug tunnels into the country in the past. In 2006, Hamas militants sneaked into the country through one such tunnel, kidnapped a soldier and held him hostage in Gaza for five years.

EGYPT

MiG crash kills one

An army MiG-21 aircraft crashed yesterday near the southern city of Luxor, leaving one person dead and three others injured on the ground after the crew ejected, officials said. The Russian-built MiG was conducting a routine training flight when it caught fire shortly after takeoff from a military airport in Luxor.

Both pilots parachuted out of the plane before it crashed onto a small village in the al-Madamod area, killing one person, officials said. Three people were also injured in the accident and rushed to Luxor’s main hospital. Military and civil police forces cordoned off the area of the crash as authorities worked to determine the cause, officials said.

PERU

Bus falls into ravine, 52 die

A makeshift bus carrying 52 Quechua Indians home from a party plunged off a cliff into the Chaupimayo River on Friday night, killing everyone on board, including 13 children. The accident occurred as the red-and-yellow cargo truck made its way back from Santa Teresa, about 500km southeast of Lima. It went off the road and fell about 200m into a deep ravine, ending up in the river. Rescuers equipped with little more than flashlights spent the night searching without success for survivors amid the twisted steel and large boulders, pulling bodies from the water. Authorities said bodies were found as far as 100m away from the impact site, suggesting they were thrown from the vehicle. The cause of the accident has not been determined, firefighter Captain David Taboada said. Throughout the day, relatives of the victims arrived to identify their loved ones. Local farmers prepared meals for the mourning relatives to eat. Fedia Castro, mayor of the district where Santa Teresa is located, told Canal N television that rural residents must rely on informal forms of transport, such as the cargo truck, because no public buses exist in the area.

UNITED STATES

Falling plane door hits motel

A door that fell off a small plane has been found on a motel roof in Monterey, California. The Salinas Californian reported that the door fell from a Beechcraft King Air twin-turboprop plane that took off from Monterey Regional Airport on Thursday afternoon. The pilot heard a pop and turned around to land. He realized the door was missing when he was back on the ground, but the door was not discovered until Friday morning. The front desk manager at the El Castell Motel said no one heard the 34kg door crash into the tile roof because the room below was unoccupied. The National Transportation Safety Board will examine the door and the plane to determine why it came loose.

BRAZIl

River boat sinks, killing 12

Twelve people were killed on Saturday when their boat sank in Amapa State during a traditional procession on a river in honor of the Virgin Mary, relief workers said. Six other people were still missing from the ship that was carrying 100 participants even though it had a capacity limit of 40, firefighters said. Firefighters had accompanied the procession, but the accident took place as the boats were returning to their ports, a spokesman said. “The boat was participating in the procession, which takes about two hours in the Amazonian state of Amapa, and must have capsized after hitting a sandbar upon its return,” firefighter Commander Miguel Rosario said. Officials said the rescue operation was to continue yesterday.

GUATEMALA

Facebook killers convicted

A court has sentenced two men to 200 years in prison each for murdering two teenagers they contacted via Facebook, a judicial source said on Saturday. Eduardo Chen and Saul Garcia Arriaza were convicted for the deaths of Heydi Montufar Lorenzana, 16, and Heiser Alexandra Mercado Santos, 18. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had initially requested 308 years behind bars. Prosecutors argued during the trial that the two men chatted over Facebook with the teenagers and set up a meeting with them. The investigation showed that the girls were killed on August 22, 2011, after being raped. Their bodies were found six days later in Amatitlan. The convictions were the first in the county where the victims and perpetrators contacted each other via Facebook.